Lapetasi Wharf Project

The young father reacted quickly as soon as he saw his son screaming and splashing after he was grabbed by the octopus. “I rushed down the beach, into the pristine waters and lifted my son who was entangled in the creature’s tentacles,” he said.

He said he could not figure out where the octopus came from. “Luckily there were no rocks nearby for the octopus to attach its tentacles to or it would have drowned my son so I dragged both the boy and his attacker ashore and into the ‘burao trees’ where I freed my son and we rushed him to hospital”.

Around 500 strong Tannese men, women and children swooped in on Ifira wharf to begin the ground breaking ceremony of the Lapetasi Wharf Project in a gigantic Toka dance to welcome the new development of port facility for Vanuatu.

Swinging and clapping their hands and stomping their feet in unison, the men circled round and round, rushing in a human tide to the centre and then out again, sending clouds of dust in the air as the earth shook under their feet.